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How to Search for Jobs: Top 10 Tips

So you’ve finished your course, or getting close to, when you’re hit with the realisation that you’re about to enter the wonderful world of professional work. Sound like a daunting task? Feeling insecure about your next steps?

Relax! Get a suit, polish your shoes, read our tips for a better job search and dive into what can be a very rewarding task.

1. How good is your CV? If you’ve just graduated or just getting started in the career world, make your CV focused in the area that you want to work. Have a great CV by inserting all your Volunteer experience, unpaid work done for friends or family related to your intended job area. Include special work done at School, for example, within groups or school studies and activities that you’ve attended.

2. Have a professional email address. Most of our email addresses show our traits, hobbies, music, cinema or arts taste, which is great when you share your email among friends, family or web boards. When you’re searching for a job though, you should really set up an email address with your first and last name. Remember to check it regularly!

3. Google yourself! Before starting your quest for a job, Google your name and check that the results don’t damage your professional applications. If they do, prepare for some damage control! It’s a good idea to consider changing the settings of your Social Networks, enabling only your friends and family to see your causes, photos and posts, etc.

4. Network, Network and guess what? Network! Get the word out that you’re looking for a job. Speak with friends, family, teachers, colleagues, classmates… in summary, strike up a conversation with everyone! Don’t just sit around: go to job fairs, visit the websites of companies that you would like to work for, be pro-active and send them your CV.

5. Publish your CV online. Find out the best Job sites for your industry and upload your CV with the clear desired job title and keywords that will help potential employers to find you online. If you have a portfolio, you might consider publishing it online as well. There are a lot of free resources online, just search for: “publish your portfolio free”.

6. Create job alerts. On the websites where you published your CV, create Job alerts to be sent to your email address once new jobs matching your criteria become available. Reply to these quickly, but not on a Friday afternoon. You don’t want your application email to be drowned among the weekend spam emails!

7. Create specific Cover letters! It might sound a dreaded task, but it’s one that will make all the difference. You might write a general cover letter, but you want to be sure to answer a particular trait or experience expressed on the job advert or job spec.

8. Feeling demoralised? Get back to school. Visit your alumni career advisor, show him/her your CV, cover letters and ask for an opinion. The career advisor can also tell you of any potential jobs going around or companies recently employing. It’s also a great chance for network.

9. Volunteer! The longer you will be inactive the longer it will take you to find a new job. Consider volunteering to an organisation close to your heart. This will give you the chance to improve your skills and even learn new ones.

10. Don’t give up! Don’t lose motivation and start moping around. Think and act positive, have a healthy routine, include exercise, positive actions to do during the day. And remember … keep that chin up!

There you go - these are our 10 Top Job Search tips to help you succeed at job searches!

Please bear in mind, that job search is a marathon, not a sprint effort. So don’t go and have peak moments of searching for a job against a long period of not doing it. Looking for a job is a job in itself - have discipline on doing it. Set aside time to do it everyday. At the end, it will be highly rewarding!

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